Grating food products, such as cheese or vegetables, is not always an easy task. Typical prior art food graters can be uncomfortable and cumbersome to use. Prior art graters may be categorized into three basic styles. The first style is the “single flat panel style,” which typically has a flat rectangular planar panel with grating elements defining a “grating area” and a handle attached to the top of the planar panel extending upward in the same plane. One example of this style is the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. “Stainless Steel Flat Grater.” This grater style is typically used to grate food above a bowl or other distribution area, and is often rested on a work surface for additional support.
The second style is the “box style” grater. This style typically has three or four planar panels with grating elements, wherein the panels are connected to each other to form a four- or three-sided enclosure with a top end and an open bottom end. A handle or knob is typically attached to the top end. The panels usually each have a different style of grater cutting element surface, ranging from larger to smaller element dimensions as one compares the panels. An example of a four-sided grater of this style is the Central Restaurant Products, Inc. “Square Grater.” An example of a three-sided grater of this style is the King Arthur Flour Company, Inc. ProGrip Ultra™ Grater. These styles can also be used suspended above a collection device, such as a bowl, but are normally used placed upon a work surface, such as a counter, a plate or a cutting board.
The third style is the mechanical rotary-style grater. This grater typically has a drum or disc mechanism with grating elements, and a handle-driven means of rotating the drum or disc. Food products are inserted into an intake structure and grated as they are pressed against the rotating drum or disc by another element, or as they are compelled against the rotating drum or disc by gravity. An example of such a grater wherein food products are compelled by user defined force against a drum is the Zyliss® “Multi-Purpose Rotary Grater.” One in which gravity compels food products, such as spices, against a drum grater is the Zyliss® “Herb Mill.”
All three types of prior art graters have disadvantages. With respect to the rotary-style, the size and shape of the food products that may be grated are limited by the size of the intake structure, which is usually a relatively small rectangular chute. Use of the gravity-feed style is also limited to small food products that freely pour through the chute to engage the drum. And both the mechanical and box style prior art graters are fairly difficult and time consuming to clean, the former as there are a lot of moving parts that need to be washed when finished, and the latter due to cumbersome access to the internal “boxed” area. Care must be taken to thoroughly clean a large variety of element areas that can trap food and cause bacteria to grow.
With respect to the “box” style, this grater is typically used with the open bottom end resting on a work surface, such as a counter, or a plate, cutting board or paper towel resting on a counter. However, by resting the bottom end on a work surface while grating food products, this surface must function as a collector for the grated food product. The work surface collector thus functions as an intermediary collector, which will be used to ultimately transfer the grated food product to another destination, such a pot or dinner plate. Dishes or cutting boards must be washed when finished, or paper towels must be thrown away, resulting in cumbersome inefficiencies. It is also inconvenient to grate some food product onto a first collector and then transfer the grated material into or onto a second receiving item, such as a dish or pot. For example, some soft cheeses, such as “Cheddar” or “Swiss” cheese, tend to “bunch up” and stick together after grating, requiring further separation and distribution steps in transferring to a pot or dish. Grating such food products directly to a dish or pot as they are grated would be preferred as it allows a more uniform distribution of grated product without additional preparation steps.
Moreover, grating food products with the prior art box-style grater bottom end resting on a work surface causes the grated product to accumulate within the enclosed “box” structure, in some cases filling the structure entirely where a large quantity of grated food product is required. Where the collection device is a countertop, not only is transferring the grated food product to a pot or dish required, but a user must also lift the box style grater very frequently to remove the grated food product as it accumulates and fills in the enclosed “boxed in area.” This results in multiple steps of lifting the grater, separating and distributing a quantity of grated product, and repeating these steps until finished with the task. In this type of situation, it may be preferred to hold the box grater over a receiving dish or pot, unsupported by a work surface, while the food product is grated, thereby allowing the grated product to fall freely out of the bottom end and into the receiving device.
However, using either of the prior art flat panel or box styles without resting these devices on a work surface requires them to be held above a target area and fully supported by one hand, while the other hand holds the food product being grated. A problem with these prior art devices is that holding and using them unsupported results in discomfort and muscle fatigue. In fact, some users will not use prior art flat panel or box style graters unsupported by a work surface due to discomfort caused when holding the extended handle from the top and grating food products across the panel face.
The main reason for the discomfort lays in the basic design of the prior art flat panel and box style graters. The mechanics are basic in that when a food product, such as a chunk of cheese or a potato, is pressed against the grating surface, a force is developed. Referring now to FIG. 1, a prior art flat panel grater 10 is shown. The grater 10 has a flat planar grating panel 12, which has a plurality of grating elements 14. A handle 11 is attached to the top of and aligned in a common plane with the panel 12. As is well known in the art, each grating element 14 typically comprises an aperture 16 through the panel 12 and a cutting blade 18 below the aperture 16. All of the cutting blades 18 face in the same direction, upward in the orientation depicted in FIG. 1. When a food product F is pressed against the panel 12 with a longitudinal force along vector 20 normal to the planar panel 12 and the food F is compelled downward with a vertical force along vector 22, the cutting blades 18 cut into the food F, and portions (not shown) of the food F are sliced off and drop through the apertures 16, thereby “grating” the food product F.
In order to grate the food F with the grater 10, a user typically holds the food F with one hand (not shown), presses the food F against the panel 12 along longitudinal force vector 20 and then slides the food F downward by applying downward force along the vertical force vector 22. The user's second hand H grasps the handle 11 and applies opposing forces along vectors 24 and 26, and as the food F travels along the panel 12 in a downward direction, the food F is “grated.” The forces 24 and 26 applied by the second hand H must be translated through the vertically aligned handle 10 to the panel 12. Due to the alignment of the handle 11 above and in the same plane as the panel 12, force vectors 24 and 20 are translated by the handle 11 into a torsional rotational force along vector 28 upon the wrist W and forearm A of the second hand H.
This rotational force 28 results in discomfort and fatigue experienced by a user in the second hand H, wrist W and forearm A areas. Moreover, with the handle being located at the top of the grater 10, the mechanics of a lever are induced. The applied force 20, as translated through the handle 11 to the second hand H and, therefore, to the wrist W and forearm A of the second hand H, increases as the food F moves downward toward the bottom of the panel surface 12. The increase in force along vector 28 as the food F moves downward from the top to the bottom of the panel 12 can be a factor of about ten to one. Thus, the forces along vector 28 compel the second hand H wrist to rotate with a fair amount of power.
FIG. 2 depicts another illustration of the prior art flat panel grater 10 of FIG. 1. As the food F reaches the bottom of the panel 12, the increased vector 20 force acting upon the panel 12 is translated by the handle 11 at the bottom of the second hand H through a pivot point P to the top of the handle 11 as forces away from the second hand H along vector 30. The pivot point P is generally a bottommost point along the palm of the second hand H below the bottom finger that engages the handle 11. The pivot point P acts as a fulcrum, translating the forces along vector 20 into corresponding forces along vector 30, which increase along the handle 11 from bottom to top of the handle 11. The handle 11 thereby acts as a lever, exerting forces along vector 30 upon the fingers D1 through D4 of the second hand H, with the forces 30 increasing relatively from bottom finger D4 to top finger D1. As shown in FIG. 2, top finger D1 has been forced into an open position, and fingers D2 and D3 progressively less open positions. Thus, the handle 11 acting as a lever forces the top of the handle 11 away from the operator's grip, forcing the fingers D1 through D3 to open. Moreover, to resist the forces along vector 30, and to provide the pivot point P, the second hand H wrist W experiences the torsional forces along vector 28. Thus, the forces along vectors 28 and 30 make operating the prior art grater 10 uncomfortable. Operators must overcome the tendencies to have their wrists, hands and arms rotated and their fingers pried open, along with the expected and anticipated force needed to push toward the material being grated with the arm to perform the work.
FIG. 3 illustrates another position for using the prior art flat panel grater 10 of FIGS. 1 and 2. The prior art grater 10 is held with the handle 11 and, therefore, panel 12 aligned horizontally, with the panel 12 extending away from the operator. Forces are applied along vector 40 to the food product F to slide it along the panel 12, and also along vector 42 normal to vector 40 to push the food F into the cutting blades 18. A user's hand H engaging the handle 11 must counter and oppose the forces along vector 42, as translated through the handle 11. Once again, the vector 42 forces become translated to the second hand H through a pivot point Q, wherein the handle 11 operates as a lever. With pivot point Q as the fulcrum, forces applied to the grating panel 12 along vector 42 are translated by the handle 11 into forces along vector 44. Due to the fulcrum at point Q, a constant force 42 as translated to the handle 11 increases as the food F moves further out towards the end of the panel and requires the operator to constantly compensate for the changing loads while moving the food F from one end to the other. These forces are also amplified by the distance away from the grater handle 11 as determined by the location of the material at its panel surface 12. As before in the configuration in FIG. 2, the fingers furthest from the pivot point Q receive the greatest amount of force along vector 44, and the handle 11 will force the fingers D to open and loosen the grip of the hand H upon the handle 11. The forces along vector 42 are also translated by the hand H, wrist W and musculature into rotational torque forces along vector 28, resulting in strain and discomfort on the arm A elbow and the wrist W.
What is needed is a grater that is easy to use, unsupported by a work surface through good ergonomic design. It should be simple to manufacture with a single handle attached at a single point, thereby making cleaning much easier when compared to a prior art grater having a multi-supported handle. It should also be operable while supported by a work surface to increase ease of use.